The Rose Quilt Reader's Guide and Cover Quilt Pattern Are Here!
Posted by Katie Pasquini Masopust on Jan 23rd 2019
What a joy it was to work with my brother on his first book in the series of Jack Walsh quilt mysteries, The Rose Quilt! He set the book in the 1920s; as he is such a history buff, this worked out perfectly. There was only one problem: he wanted me to make the quilt for the cover, and I am a twenty-first-century gal and make art quilts!
So I had to reach back to my beginning quilting days, where I learned to make quilts the traditional way. Once we decided that the title was to be The Rose Quilt, Mark implored me to make a quilt featuring a rose. As a child, I always drew little line-drawing roses, so I chose to explore that form. They have nice soft edges that are easy for turning, and the leaves have points but are also easy to do.
My quilt is made of all cottons, but my friend and shop owner Sally Fry from Stitch in Ferndale California is doing a book club about this book where everyone will be making the quilt. She is suggesting two ways of making it: one is with cottons; the other is to add the appliqué in wool! I chose soft grays and green cottons for the background and cut them into squares and rectangles. My thought was that the rectangles are like the pages of a book. I cut the stems on the bias so that they were easy to form into the flowing lines that radiate from the large center flower.
What I love most about this whole thing is how Mark took the picture that I had sent him of the quilt and put it into words. When I got the first reading of the proof of the book, I was so surprised and proud! He is not a quilter, and yet he explained it so eloquently (and I didn't even help!). Great job, Mark.
I truly enjoyed making this quilt, and that was a surprise too! I am a dedicated art quilter, and this is a pretty traditional quilt. Sort of going back to my roots and enjoying following my pattern. It was a lot of fun, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. You can download the free pattern HERE.
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From the editors of C&T: But wait, there's more! Mark Pasquini has also written a reader's guide to accompany The Rose Quilt, which you can download HERE. The reader's guide is perfect to get book club discussions started. Then challenge your book club to make their own versions of the cover quilt!
